Offaly V Monaghan, SFC qualifier, 25/6/2011

[Abercrombie Fitch]

A fantastic performance given the circumstances, but its only Round 1. We need to push on from here and should go to Limerick expecting to win. Cribben needs to get them going now in training and even step it up a gear. Show thew country (and some of our own) that the obituaries on Offaly football were a tad premature.

From 1-15, plus subs, Offaly were never going to be beaten. McNamee was outstanding, even watching his goal in Carlow in my local, everyone was astounded, such a cool finish. We could not justify swapping him for ANYBODY, Brogan and Gooch included.

Panda and Casey both had good games but i felt Casey was replaced at the right time. He had ran into a few dead ends just prior ro it but will retain his place. Panda certainly will, great performance.

McManus needs no rating. Awesome, We REALLY REALLY dont appreciate him and only fully will when he's gone.

Ross Brady surprised me. Slack marking in the 1st half but was the only one who consistently kicked it long, a ploy that worked so well you'd wonder why others decided to carry the ball at all. 100% improvement from Wexford but more has to follow.

Midfield did what they had to do, winning ball and prob broke even, but Daltons 3 points were very important and all of them were good scores, the one where he intercepted a ball and drove forward and popped it over particularly.

Both Darbys and Stephen Lonergan had very good games. Nothing demoralises a team like seeing the opposition backs steam forward and pop over scores. Monaghan did it in the first half but we did it excellently in 2nd half.

Scott Brady caught a few times in 1st half by the centre forward but overall this was one of his best games in an Offaly jersey. Tackling, passing and driving forward all excellent. Centre back should be his now for as long as he wants it. Excellent.

Like McManus, Karol Slattery does not need to be rated. As usual inspirational. His hit on Clerkin was as important as it was impressive.

Sean Pender and Joe Quinn kept it tight at the back. Pender seemed to attract the ball like a magnet and had a great game. Quinn put the shackles on their forward and when he went out the field Quinn was allowed follow Finlay and did it superbly.

Mulhall very solid under dropping ball and strong going into contact. Huge kick out is a bonus.

Roll on Limerick I say. Optimistic summary i know but was as surprised as the next man.

[High School Musical]

- Niall Smith's excellent fielding. The Gracefield man is an expert - to the point that I'm a little surprised somebody in the AFL hasn't looked at him. Is he too small?

I agree with lot of what you say Magpie. Great performance from Offaly. But I'd read the midfield duel a little differently. I thought Lennon outfielded Smith for the most part of the game. Lennon is a good man to win ball in the air but isn't mobile enough in open play. Smith outshone him in the open play department and won some clean ball at times. But when it was a 50/50 ball in the sky, I'm afraid Smith more often than not came off 2nd best. I'll admit Smith is a super fielder of the ball and will continue to shine and grows into a more physically imposing midfielder. He should lord it out there the next day against Limerick, although I'm not really sure of their midfield line without Galvin.

As for Dalton & Clerkin, this ended up being a serious mismatch on the day. If I was giving ratings out of 10 for their performance I'd give big dick 1 out of 10. He had a terrible day. Dalton, to be fair, capitalised on this but I'll wait to see if he can put in a repeat performance next time out.

I'll shut up now before I upset any more people with my 'negative' take on a such a positive performance. To finish on a high note I thought the whole back line were unbelievable and they were the foundation for the win. Super performance from the 6 of them and Mulhall in the goals.

[Kevin]

I’d like to extend my deepest contrafibularities to the Offaly players & management from last Saturday night. It was a great performance typified by the spirit which was embiggined throughout the side right down to the smallest man.

Couldn't agree more.

...AND nice use of the Urban Slang Dictionary HSM